Los Alamos High NJROTC holds command ceremony after third straight state title
Los Alamos High NJROTC passed command at Duane Smith Auditorium after a third straight state title. The unit's next leaders inherited a program that keeps winning and keeps growing.
The Los Alamos High School NJROTC unit changed commanders at Duane Smith Auditorium on April 10, but the bigger story was the record behind the handoff: a third straight state title and a program that, in a 2023 profile, said its supply officer oversaw more than $500,000 worth of military-issued equipment. The annual Change of Command marked the end of one leadership cycle and the start of another in a unit that has become one of Los Alamos High's most visible public-service programs.
NJROTC has been part of Los Alamos High School since the unit was chartered on April 20, 1983, and its mission reaches well beyond drill and ceremony. The Navy says the program is meant to instill citizenship, service to the United States, personal responsibility and a sense of accomplishment, while the Los Alamos unit says its primary goal is to make each cadet a better student through the Navy core values of honor, courage and commitment. By 2017, the unit had already earned Distinguished Unit status for 14 consecutive years, giving the 2026 ceremony the weight of a long institutional tradition.
The leadership pipeline was on display in the names tied to the program this year, including C/ENS Alicia Valerio, Chief Aron Ayers, Petty Officer Matt Bohlen, LCDR Wes Shumaker, C/MCPO Seth Javernick, C/PO3 Evelyn Drake, C/LTJG Alana Hinojosa, C/LTJG Emily Baca, C/CDR Joshua Danforth, C/CDR Sofia West, Cadet Jacob Torrez and Steffie Nielsen. That depth mattered during a competition season that began with the New Mexico State JROTC Military Skills Meet at Cibola High School on April 1, where Los Alamos competed in marksmanship, color guard, physical fitness, unit personnel inspection, unarmed regulation drill and armed regulation drill for the first time that year.
The spring build-up followed a first-place finish at the Area 20 qualifiers in November 2025 and a regional contest in Sahuarita, Arizona, where 32 cadets represented Los Alamos in February and finished third overall. The program also has a recent state benchmark: in 2024, Los Alamos NJROTC won state titles in drill, color guard and physical fitness, then claimed overall JROTC state championship honors. For Los Alamos, the result is a rare blend of civic training and measurable success, rooted in a school program that has lasted more than four decades and still keeps producing leaders.
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